14 DAY TRIAL // Lucas Arts continues its collaboration with Steam, this time with a true gem of the gaming world, Dark Forces. The highly acclaimed, first-person shooter was released back in 1995 and is part of the equally renowned Star Wars: Jedi Knight series. Dark Forces and Jedi Knight are available for the meager sum of $4.99, with the Mysteries of the Sith at another $2.99.The more recent Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy are priced at $9.99.
Dark Forces might have been a bit of a Doom lecher, but the series greatly took off with Jedi Knight, and Jedi Outcast. With the introduction of multiplayer, but most of all of the lightsaber, they gave birth to a wide and most of all, loyal, fan pool, spreading from the Star Wars fanatics to the casual gamers. Enough so that game characters made appearances in several novels. The name of Kyle Katarn offered a fresh look of the Jedi Knight, different from those of the past. The fans now had a rebellious Knight that still adhered to the principles of the Force. Good and wise, but with a touch of teen spirit.
The success of these games as well as the cult-game status they obtained ensured that Lucas Arts continued a game development based on their trademark universe. Much credit can be given to these titles for later developments, though of a different gender, like Knights of the Old Republic or The Force Unleashed.
Steam owners can acquire the games at their leisure through the Steam on-line store, individually or as one large package, running at the price of $19.99. But be warned, the older versions of the title seem to have received very little, if not at all any updating. This isn't a problem of digital remastering, but of compatibility, as the latest hardware devices and operating systems proved to understand only galactic basic language, and were utterly oblivious to the older wookie dialect of the MS DOS.